How Improv Everywhere creates viral pranks for brands

Charlie Todd is completely comfortable wearing his underwear on the subway or walking into a Best Buy dressed like one of their employees. That’s because he’s usually accompanied by hundreds of others when he pulls off one of his stunts. As the visionary founder of Improv Everywhere, Todd’s been cooking up hilariously massive public scenes for more than 14 years.Read the full article

How Improv Everywhere creates viral pranks for brands l Digiday

Charlie Todd is comfortable wearing his underwear on the subway or walking into a Best Buy dressed like one of their employees. That's because he's usually accompanied by hundreds of others when he pulls off one of his stunts. As the visionary and leader of Improv Everywhere, Todd's been cooking up these massive public scenes for more than 14 years. It all started off as weekend pranks with his improv buddies, whether they pretended to be U2 giving a live performance on a New York City rooftop or riding the subway in their underwear. More than 100 events later, Todd continues to churn out new ones especially in collaboration with brands like Target, ESPN, and Fandango. "Improv Everywhere is very selective about the brands we work, and the projects have to be a good fit," said Todd. "It's usually something we already wanted to do, and a brand is able to enhance it. By bringing in a budget we're able to do something that's above and beyond what we'd normally do." Todd said he'll often pass on working with brands that want their logo or product overtly prominent during the event. "The majority of them end up not being fits because someone wants to make a commercial." The Improv Everywhere audience and participants will be "immediately turned off by a product placement shot that is obviously shoehorned into a video," said Todd. "The best brands are the ones just want to create something that's great." Watch our View from the Top interview with Todd to find out which brand partnerships were most successful and why. VISIT us: http://www.digiday.com LIKE us on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/digiday FOLLOW us on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Digiday FOLLOW our INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/digiday/

Best Buy Uniform Prank

80 people enter a Manhattan Best Buy wearing blue polo shirts and khaki pants. Chaos ensues. Learn more at our site: http://improveverywhere.com Subscribe: http://bit.ly/iesub Like us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/improv.everywhere Business Contact: http://improveverywhere.com/contact 80 people enter a Manhattan Best Buy wearing blue polo shirts and khaki pants. Chaos ensues. Backstory: http://improveverywhere.com/2011/11/07/best-buy-remastered/ This 2006 mission is the first in a series of remastered videos we are producing from our archives to commemorate our 10th anniversary. We are going through our original tapes and updating old classics with higher quality video and audio, as well as adding additional never-before-seen footage. Due to file size restrictions in the early days of YouTube, many of these videos have only been seen in extremely low 240p quality. The remastered Best Buy video adds some interactions with employees that we didn't even realize we had on tape! Produced by Charlie Todd http://improveverywhere.com/charlie_todd/ Edited by Andrew Flynn Soltys: http://andrewsoltys.com/ Music by Tyler Walker http://tylerwalkermusic.com This is one of over 100 different missions Improv Everywhere has executed over the past ten years in New York City. Others include Frozen Grand Central, the Food Court Musical, and the famous No Pants Subway Ride, to name a few. Visit our website to see tons of photos and video of all of our work, including behind the scenes information on how this video was made. http://improveverywhere.com Be the first to find out about the next video we create by subscribing to our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=ImprovEverywhere Like us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/improv.everywhere Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/improvevery Buy the Improv Everywhere book: http://tinyurl.com/iebook

Lord of the Rings In Real Life - Movies In Real Life (Episode 3)

Full Story: http://dft.ba/-LOTR-IRL SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/iesub Join Us: http://improveverywhere.com/email-lists/ Watch full series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx0pMPRtbaw&list=SPTNjsbzFjWTA3-yF32hvWVkWU5kjDA3Ax&index=1 For our latest mission we recreated the famous "You shall not pass!" scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, placing Gandalf the Grey on Central Park's iconic Bow Bridge. Rather than facing off against a Balrog as he did on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, this time Gandalf faced an even more daunting foe, Central Park tourists. The tourists proved to be too powerful for Gandalf, as nearly every one was able to successfully pass. Created and Directed by Charlie Todd http://improveverywhere.com/ Produced by Deverge http://deverge.com/ Music by Tyler Walker http://tylerwalkermusic.com Movies In Real Life is presented in part by Fandango http://bit.ly/170bIvx Producers: Alan Aisenberg, Andrew Soltys Editor: Denis Cardineau Director of Photography: Ilya Smelansky Camera: Myo Campbell, Denis Cardineau, Kris Knight, Taylor Pow, Ilya Smelansky, Chloe Smolkin, Dave Szarejko Production Sound: Harris Karlin Photography: Arin Sang-urai Production Assistants: Juan Cocuy, Ryan Creamer, Spencer Lindenman, Cody Lindquist, Michael Tannenbaum Props and Costumes: Aleks Arcabascio Cast: Erik Dies as Gandalf the Grey Equipment Provided by: Kessler Crane This is one of over 100 different missions Improv Everywhere has executed over the past ten years in New York City. Others include Frozen Grand Central, the Food Court Musical, and the famous No Pants Subway Ride, to name a few. Visit our website to see tons of photos and video of all of our work, including behind the scenes information on how this video was made. http://improveverywhere.com Be the first to find out about the next video we create by subscribing to our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=ImprovEverywhere JOIN OUR RANKS: http://improveverywhere.com/email-lists/ You can also like us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/improv.everywhere Or follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/improvevery